Jessica Kubzansky

Midway through a rehearsal of "War Music" at the Geffen Playhouse, director Jessica Kubzansky is getting anxious. "Are we officially back?" she asks the stage manager, seated to her left in the audience. The stage manager replies that the union-mandated break will go on for yet another one minute and 30 seconds. Kubzansky utters a mild oath and pounds the arm of her seat with mock petulance. Finally, she's given the signal that she can resume directing. She responds with a high-pitched "Woo hoo."

"Richard II," Shakespeare's history play about the fate of a king who talks a better game than he delivers, is given an entrancing stripped-down production at the Theatre @ Boston Court. Jessica Kubzansky, the theater's co-artistic director, has adapted and directed what she's calling "R II," a deft distillation of the drama that begins after Richard has been taken prisoner. Performed by an adroit cast of three, Kubzansky's version proceeds in flashbacks that are staged with laser-like precision, each scene offering another angle on this political object lesson.

"Richard II," Shakespeare's history play about the fate of a king who talks a better game than he delivers, is given an entrancing stripped-down production at the Theatre @ Boston Court. Jessica Kubzansky, the theater's co-artistic director, has adapted and directed what she's calling "R II," a deft distillation of the drama that begins after Richard has been taken prisoner. Performed by an adroit cast of three, Kubzansky's version proceeds in flashbacks that are staged with laser-like precision, each scene offering another angle on this political object lesson.

Midway through a rehearsal of "War Music" at the Geffen Playhouse, director Jessica Kubzansky is getting anxious. "Are we officially back?" she asks the stage manager, seated to her left in the audience. The stage manager replies that the union-mandated break will go on for yet another one minute and 30 seconds. Kubzansky utters a mild oath and pounds the arm of her seat with mock petulance. Finally, she's given the signal that she can resume directing. She responds with a high-pitched "Woo hoo."

Kate Crackernuts: Warning -- this production might give you a buzz. I don't mean the Ecstasy high of its club-kid chorus, but something closer to an actual buzzing in your ears -- from John Zalewski's thumping, trickling sound design, to the strange, dense, brilliant wordplay of writer Sheila Callaghan, to the direction of Jessica Kubzansky.

Colony Theatre in Burbank will launch its 2003-04 season with French Stewart ("Third Rock From the Sun") in David Rose's staging of Larry Shue's "The Nerd" (June 7-July 6), followed by Jessica Kubzansky's staging of Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic" (Aug. 16-Sept. 14). The Los Angeles premiere of the noir-spoof musical "Gunmetal Blues," opening Oct. 18, will be staged by Laguna Playhouse artistic director Andrew Barnicle.

Michael Michetti and Jessica Kubzansky, two respected L.A. stage directors, will become the joint artistic directors of the new Boston Court Theatre, a $3.8-million structure with a 99-seat theater and a 60-seat recital hall that has been built in Pasadena. The two have never worked together, which isn't surprising, considering that directors seldom work in tandem.

Glendale's classical theater company A Noise Within will stage two Shakespeares, a Marivaux, a Gozzi and a Cather in 2002-03. "Macbeth" will open the season, Sept. 27-Nov. 30, directed by artistic directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott. It will be joined in repertory by Marivaux's "The Triumph of Love" (Oct. 11-Dec. 5), staged by Anne Justine D'Zmura, who has been a resident director for the Guthrie Theatre but is new to A Noise Within, and by Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" (Nov.

Catherine Butterfield's "Joined at the Head" is an odd play. There isn't much new in its take on advancing death by cancer. Indeed, it has the aura of a movie of the week. Even the writing style is more filmic than theatrical, with small scenes in many locales. The bonding of two female protagonists--a man's doomed wife and his old high school sweetheart, now a famous writer--is not unusual. Nor is the position of the man, as a sort of pawn between them.

Theatrical sound designers are usually little noticed, but take a look at John Zalewski in International City Theatre's exceedingly lively "A Servant to Two Masters" in Long Beach. You can literally take a look at him, for Zalewski--best known for his behind-the-scenes work at the Evidence Room and Actors' Gang--is on stage throughout, dressed as a Venetian gondolier. From his "gondola" console at the side of the stage, he produces a stream of clever aural punctuation marks.

Good things came in threes at the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards ceremony. With the critics spreading the honors fairly evenly this year, three shows each won three awards, announced Sunday at the Coronet Theatre: Pacific Resident Theatre's revival of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending," the Mark Taper Forum's production of August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean" and Powerhouse Theatre Company's premiere of the musical "The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World" at [Inside] the Ford.